Obituaries of the former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar have been mostly boiler-plate stuff, scarcely going beyond the Young Turk label, his pada yatra, and his being done in by his peers. But Jaitirth “Jerry“ Rao, salutes the Man from Ballia for the brave and extraordinary decision of his government to pledge the nation’s gold to avoid defaulting on its debts.

“To honour one’s debts is something enjoined on us by our ancients as a dharma. We even have a saying that if we welsh in this life, we will get caught with having to pay it back in the next. The Sanskrit word runa refers to something that sticks to you.

“In honouring the debts incurred by previous administrations, Chandrashekhar’s team was being faithful to their rajdharma. As we all know, good ethical behaviour is usually tied up in the long run with good material outcomes. (Where dharma reigns can artha be far behind?). And that is precisely what happened.

“The country which went to the brink came back with a bang and is today not just solvent, but it is so in a manner that is so healthy it almost smacks of plenitude.”

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it was the bancruptcy of rajiv gandhi’s policies that lead to the emptying ogfour foreign exchange kitty. the World bank and IMF new theconsequences of its imposed monetary discipline and large scale loan that it granted to India during his regime. This was required to be done so that without even a protest nations economic policy of self reliance and planned development could be given a go by.

It is true that Chandrasekher lead government wriggled out of economic impasse by pledging the gold for the first time and hopefully last time in the history of free India. It was an act of compulsion, there was no way out for the man at the helm of affair. Such being the case, it is nothing but self deception to call that move as an extra ordinary act of courage. Let there be no illusion to label it as an act of Rajadharma. It was an act of a desperate person with out a party of his own, who wanted to cling to the power at any cost. Really chandrasekher of young turk days faded in to darkness after Bharath yatra , the first and best of it`s kind which heralded the on set of several Yatras with their own hidden agenda. His great Padayatra ended in establishing a sprawling Ashram at Dhondsi in UP which later on was cause of smearing the face of Dhondsi Baba with several controversies. His exit from the power was as inglorious as his ascendance to the throne of highest executive post in the country. The brightest star in the political sky of India during the emergency days which promised to be the pole star to guide Indian polity and an answer to the dynastic rule, proved to be no more than a flickering candle.